Welcome to the Natural Health for People in Pets podcast, a show that aims to empower you with the knowledge and tools needed to take control of your own health and wellbeing, as well as providing health promoting strategies for the dogs in your life. The world of health and nutrition can be overwhelming, so what better way to understand what works and what doesn't, what's evidence-based and what's not, then to hear it from someone in the know.
So please welcome your host of the show, accredited Naturopath and nutritionist Nelle Cook. Welcome back to Natural Health for People and Pets. I'm co-host of the show, Glen Cook, and I'm gonna introduce the host of the show, Narelle Cook, to talk about our sponsors. Hello everyone. As usual, we love Big Dog. Big Dog is a sponsor of the show and they have been for a while now. So if you haven't checked out their website, it's Big dog pet foods.com. Their website is full of amazing resources.
They answer all the frequently asked questions around raw food feeding that people might have. People may know I do some writing for Big Dog that goes onto their website, but they also have articles written by a vet, which is really great. And their resonant vet is Dr. Duncan. And he actually wrote a really good article recently around the use of Whole Foods for elimination diets.
The article gives an example of a dog that had been suffering really painful skin issues for years and years, and the owners thought that it was a beef allergy. So they started feeding a variety of big dog pet that didn't have any beef. And the great thing is the dog's skin issues resolved, which is great. I'll just make a long story short because you really should go and read the article on the website.
But that particular variety of Patty needed to be reformulated, so it ended up containing beef and the owners were concerned about this, but they gave it a go and they fed this patty with beef in it, but it wasn't an issue. So what they figured out was that beef was only an issue when it was fed in a highly processed kibble form, but when they fed it as a raw whole food, it didn't aggravate their dog.
So I guess I just wanted to highlight that allergies and intolerances are not always so straightforward and to consider something like switching to a whole natural species, appropriate raw food diet if your dog does have any health issues or skin issues, well. Done, big Dog. One of the reasons we love Big Dog and our dogs love Big Dog. Yes, we do. Also, while we're talking about sponsors, we've got a new sponsor, which is very exciting.
It is very exciting. So the new sponsor of the show is Ballen Bone, just like Big Dog. They're an Australian company. So the products are a hundred percent Australian made and owned. So it's ballen bone.com au. So that's B E L L A N D B O N e.com au. So definitely check out their website. And one of the reasons why I am so supportive of Ballen Bone is that they do believe in quality ingredients and they give absolute complete transparency,
uh, with the ingredients that they do use in their products. Hmm. And I'm pretty sure the reason that Bell and Bone actually came into existence is the founder of the company wanted something better for her dog and she just couldn't find the quality that she was looking for in what was out there already. Mm-hmm. . So, you know, like a lot of entrepreneurs, if you can't find what you want, create it. So you need fill a need. Absolutely. So Bell and Bone, they do dental sticks.
All the ingredients are natural and they're healthy. They're dental sticks contain two active ingredients that are proven to fresh and breath and fight plaque and tartar. So that's really awesome. And what I love about their dental sticks is if you go to the pet shop or the supermarket and you look at the main dental sticks on the market, the top ingredients like the number one ingredient for one of them was wheat
flour. Mm-hmm. And the other one was rice flour. But with Ballen Bone, all of their dental sticks, the number one ingredient is the named animal protein, kangaroo, dark salmon, chicken, whatever it is, 20 to 25% of the number, like top ingredient is actual animal protein. So, okay. Very good. That's good. They also do collagen sticks. Obviously they contain collagen. So collagen's just really important for boosting mobility and just for better health and wellbeing overall.
They also have some super food treats and freeze dried treats, which I'm gonna touch on a little bit later in the episode. And the great thing is that you can find them online, so at the bell and bone.com au, or you know, at your favorite pet specialty store all around Australia. Fantastic. So if you're looking for better ways to look after your dog, you've got two options now. You've got Big Dog Pet foods and you've got Bell and Bone. Absolutely. And they compliment each other so well.
Big Dog is the staple diet and Bell and Bone for all those treats and to keep you dog occupied. All. Right, great. Thank you for both those sponsors who are gonna bring this episode to you, which is what happened to Ladybug part two. Yes. So the reason I thought we would talk about what happened to Ladybug part two, and if you haven't listened to part one, go back to the very beginning.
I think it was episode two that we spoke about ladybug's back injury and her spinal surgery and the ordeal that followed on from that over the months and now over a year. It's been. And a reasonable success story around it as well from something that was at the time very emotionally compounding for both you and I. Like it was a, it was a very touch and go moment with Ladybug when she originally caused herself a mischief and had to be rushed into the animal emergency center during
the very first covid outbreak. That's fine. But you can, as Narelle said, you can hear all about this on the first episode. So if you go back and listen to what happened to Ladybug, you'll know the entire story and the sequence of events that happened around that. Long story short and good news is that she has recovered far beyond what the expectation was, primarily because of the very good work that Noelle did.
She went into hyper research mode and started to research, looking into ways to rejuvenate nerves and cells and so forth that were damage during the operation and during the injury itself. Also, thank you to a massive thank you to Neil Barnsley, who's just amazing at animal physio and chiropractic. And acupuncture. Yeah. Just a, a, you know, like a great wealth of knowledge three generations in and just an amazing guy. And also to our vet as well. Mm-hmm. Uh, Dr. Jane Rickards from.
Hills District Vet. Hills District Vet. So from all of that, ladybugs survived to live another day where she can do some more damage to herself. And. She did. So the reason I wanted to talk about this today, because I'm often asked what do I do with my own animals in terms of diet and supplements and treatments when things go wrong?
So I thought I'd just share this as a bit of a case study for if your dog goes through something similar, things that you can think about doing to help heal their recovery from that. Like all dog emergencies, this started on a Sunday morning. Mm-hmm. , it's always the way, it's always when the vets aren't open and your only option is an emergency animal hospital. Yep. So we, I woke up one Sunday morning, it's a month ago now. Yep. And bug was just vomiting and vomiting.
She just vomited from, I think I got up at 6:00 AM she'd been vomiting and pretty much didn't stop till almost midday. Mm. Um, the poor little thing. Didn't wanna eat her food, which is the primary red flag for us. It's a massive red flag for ladybug. If she doesn't wanna touch food, like she'll go through a brick wall to get to food. You'll soon learn just how driven she's to eat. Mm. Anything. I didn't know what to do because she was in a pretty bad way.
She didn't wanna eat, she didn't wanna drink. And the vomiting was just consistent. So actually came across, it's called Green Cross Vets and they offer 24 7 online vet consult. So anyone in Australia, if you didn't know that, I didn't know that until I rang the animal emergency hospital. And they said, Hey, maybe you should speak to these people first and save yourself some money.
Which was really lovely of them. So given the bug, she didn't have a temperature, she didn't have diarrhea, she'd pooed normally, there was no blood in her poo. So the vet pretty much said monitor her because if we took her to the emergency hospital, that's all they would do for the first 24 hours. Just give her fluids potentially and just keep an eye on her. So, and. Charge her triple the price. Yes. Yeah. So we did that. We just kept her home and we just monitored her and you know,
she was just miserable, the poor little thing. So I took her to my own vet, uh, Monday, and she had a full checkover. Bloods were done. They all came back normal, you know, her pancreatic enzymes came back normal. Her temperature was normal. The vet couldn't feel anything on palpation, which is just surprising . So we took her home and she still wasn't eating and she was just getting in.
Like she was just looking more and more miserable. And you know, when dogs, the pain kicks in and they sort of curl up and shiver Bug was just wanting to hide away in a crate. And well. That's for me is the telltale sign with Ladybug that she's in a heap of pain because she doesn't express it vocally. Like some dogs will whimper and whine and carry on. She's very stoic. She's stoic, but she just goes and hides,
like she'll try and hide under the bed or she'll hide in her crate. Mm. Like she won't sleep on her main bed, which she does all the time, every other day of the year. That's where she, she's on her bed in front of a little heater. However, she would go and hide under the desk or she'd be in a little corner tucked away. And that's always a indication that she's trying to outrun the pain. Yeah. Well thing. So, because you know, we could see that she was obviously getting worse.
We took her back to the vet on Tuesday this time the bloods did show like a mild pancreatitis. So the, the vet thought, well that's probably it. That's probably all, that's was sort of upsetting her. But the challenge with pancreatitis is that there's not one specific test that's conclusive for it. So it can make diagnosis really hard because sometimes the blood tests do come back as normal. But luckily our vet's really thorough and she didn't wanna assume that that was
all it was. So. With a little insistence from me. Yeah. And because we know bugs so well and we know her behavior, we insisted that our vet do some x-rays. Mm. So the x-rays came back with something random showing, but none of us and the vet showed me the, just the images. Images. Yeah. And. You know, we are racking our brain. I'm thinking what random household item or what could it be?
And we just couldn't figure out based on the shape of what we were seeing on the x-rays of what she could have eaten. I thought it was a guitar pick at one stage. Yeah. It just had this really sort of triangular and the density of it. The vet couldn't, she's like, it's not bone, but it's still dense. And we, we just couldn't figure it out. Then we thought it was a bit of a Nyla bone that she could have chewed off. So the vet took the Nyla bone and put it on the X-ray slides just to see what
that looked like under an X-ray. Just to. Compare the Yeah, yeah. The image. So that wasn't it. So the vet said we can either send her off somewhere else and get an endoscopy or further testing done to see what's down there. But at the end of the day, whatever, she's like, she's gonna have to be opened up because it's not moving. Like it's not shifting. She did X-rays the following Wednesday as well? I think. So she did the first X-rays Tuesday and then she did follow up X-rays Wednesday
to see if it hadn't shifted. Mm. And it hadn't. So we're just like, okay, bug has a habit of eating things, just open her up and let's see what's in there. Yep. And oh my goodness. Unbelievable. What actually came out such a small dog, like if it came out of a large dog, you'd be concerned. Mm. Like let's say for example, it was in a, in the stomach of a Rottweiler or a German Shepherd sized dog, you would think, wow, that's a lot of material to be in that dog. Yeah.
But to pull it out of a tiny little French bulldog. You will see photos I'll post. Absolutely. You're gonna see a photo of what came out of Ladybug . Yes. To reduce the mystery. What came out of her was I had some open toad sandals. Yeah. Sandals sort of flip flop sort of thing. So they're a hybrid of both. And Ladybug had eaten the plastic sheath that was on the top of them. That was probably like probably six months ago. She probably ate that. Mm-hmm.
Because I knew that she tore it up and I found bits and pieces of them in the study. She actually got into a little alcove where we go outside and I had them there and shed ripped them up and I thought, oh, I didn't think anything of it. I just put 'em in the bin. 'cause I thought, oh, you're a little turd, riving up my shoes. So I put them away. So that was one component of what she ate. And then we found a part of another part of the indestructible bed. Purina, I think. Yeah. That's.
A Rain Purina bed. Yeah. Non destructible bed. So she'd eaten the whole handle off. And it was so funny because when the vet rang us, they're like, oh, like does Purina mean anything to you? The label was still crisp. Like you could still clearly read the brand in. So it was the handle of the bed. The vet gave us an outline of what she'd pulled out and she actually saved it, which was great. 'cause literally we wouldn't have believed it.
Like the actual size of the objects and, and with the sandals, even though the material was sort of a flexible rubber plastic when they were actually on the sandals, I think because they'd been in her gut for so long and been exposed to, you know, all the acids in that environment that when the vet removed them it was like rock hard plastic with like razor sharp edges and. Oh, it was terrible. It was, it was unimaginable how hard it had become and how sharp and
just nasty. Yeah. It was, that's the best thing. Best way to describe it was just nasty. Like. The vet couldn't believe that she hadn't shredded her internals. And it was lucky that the vet made the call to do the surgery when she did, or you know, that we insisted. Insisted because when she did open her up the corner of that sharp plastic had just pierced the intestine. So there was like a couple of millimeters. I think it was the bowel, wasn't it? It was just, just about.
Puncture the bowels. Yeah. Yeah. So the vet said, you know, if it hadn't been left till the next day to do the surgery, she would've just gone septic and she would've died. She wouldn't have made it. That was really fortunate. So bug was in the vet for most of the week. We didn't pick her up till Friday. So she pretty much hadn't eaten from Saturday until Friday, which just highlights the resilience of dogs and how long they can go without
eating. Because she didn't, she, I mean obviously she lost condition, but nothing to the extent that I thought she would for a, you know, a small dog not eating for a week. Mm-hmm. So that was really surprising. But what was funny, the vets kept her in there to monitor her for a couple of days after the surgery and they were trying to encourage her to eat and they were using one of the vet prescription low fat tin foods and Bugg just wasn't having a bar of it.
She just didn't wanna touch it. So they actually rang us up and said, Hey, do you happen to have anything that you can bring in that bug might wanna eat? Now luckily I have a chest freezer full of all the different big dog varieties of patties and their kangaroo patty is only 4% fat. So remember, you know, it's not just the surgery that we're, you know, trying to deal with.
It's also that mild pancreatitis that is complicating matters. So she needs to, you know, she needed to be on a lowfat diet. So the kangaroo big dog patties was perfect. So Glen and I ended up taking our own feeding there for a bug and she actually did eat it, which was really good. So. There's another insert that has to be mentioned here too. This was round two of Covid just started to break out as well. Mm-hmm.
Even though we were allowed to go into the vets at this stage, we had to wear masks and we had to make appointments. And the very first time she ever went in, we weren't actually even allowed in the building this time we were allowed in the building. Mm-hmm. . But it was round two of the Delta variant just coming into Australia and turning it into the wonderful experience that we're all going through at the moment. What. Are we up to? Just over two months in strict lockdown. Yep. Two months.
So that was Bug's Vet stay in surgery and sort of that was the ordeal that she went through. So I guess I wanted to talk about now if you have a dog that goes through a trauma or a surgery or has pancreatitis, what are some of the things that you can do with bug? She had a big surgery, like she had a lot of her two and. A half hours. Yeah. Long for a little dog to be under for that long. But the amount that she needed to be open up like dissected Yep.
To remove all of the material was quite extensive according to what the vet was telling us. So it was so important that she be on like just multiple small meals every day, just to reduce the burden on her gut and her intestines and her pancreas as well. So just so it would give them, you know, the time that they needed to heal without compromising the tissue and minimizing scarring. So I had bug on four meals a day,
so that was the big dog kangaroo patty. And the other reason, if you are feeding lowfat foods for pancreatitis, for example, most lowfat foods are also very, very low in calorie. So that's another reason that you need to feed more often to make sure that they're meeting their calorie requirements. Because when dogs go through a trauma, all of their bodily biochemical processes are upregulated. So their need for nutrition just skyrockets.
And particularly for high quality like highly bioavailable protein sources. So that's where raw food really has an advantage. But yet lots of small meals. So I guess I had her on the kangaroo patties for a week, which were 4% fat. And then I shifted her on to the big dog wellbeing patties, which is 6% fat. And then I started adding in the goat, which is 9% fat. And I sort of kept it with those three for the first month.
But because her pancreatitis was mild, I'm quite confident that within the next month I'll start putting her back on her normal diet. Mm-hmm. But that's really individual, depending on the severity of the pancreatitis, if you've got a dog that's going through that.
But when we're talking about diet following surgery or trauma, it just makes me so grateful that I've had all of our frenchies and I guess even the shepherds now from when we've got them on a raw food diet because the body like it is, it's such a trauma and it's such a burden and the body needs so much just good nutrition to heal and recover fully. And the thought of a dog being on kibble its whole life and then having to undergo that trauma and needing good nutrition.
Because if you haven't listened to my episode on the dangers of kibble, just by the way that kibble is manufactured, there's just no avoiding the fact that it's very inflammatory. So it creates a lot of inflammation in the body. It creates what's called the malar reaction. And downstream from that you get advanced glycation in products and acrylamide formation. So these are really toxic compounds.
So for a dog whose body is already under such a burden of trying to heal and then it's also got the burden of this inflammatory diet, it just makes me cringe. So I guess that's something people need to think about. Mm. When their dog's in that situation, you've really got to give them the best nutrition possible. Absolutely. The other thing we had to mention too is that when we got her home, one of the recovery messages that the vet was waiting for was when she would poo
Oh that's right. And it took her about three days, which we're really concerned about 'cause bog poos like clockwork two times a day. Yeah. She has got super bowels, she'll eat, she'll process for a couple of hours and then she's making little brown nuggets everywhere. And let. Me just give you a heads up. When you start feeding a dog four meals a day, expect a lot of poo. Yeah. Like she's just a poo making machine at the moment. Yep. It just never ends.
But I am moving her back to three meals a day because she's put her condition back on and she doesn't need it. Yep. And all the little treats she's getting on the side as well. Yep. So in terms of supplements, now I'm sort of in a unique position that I've got a whole clinic full of supplements for humans and dogs. So I've got, you know, everything on hand that I need when I need it. But the main thing that I put bug on, you know, as soon as she got home was the vet activate joint care.
So that's the liquid turmeric product, or I should say it's actually like seven different curcuminoids, which are the active constituents in turmeric. And we did a whole episode on that too. So the difference between turmeric and curcumin. So definitely go back and listen to that if you haven't already. So she was on that twice a day.
And the reason I went for the liquid is because you pop it in the mouth like between the cheek and the teeth, it actually avoids the whole digestive process because turmeric and curcumin by nature is poorly absorbed. So it just helped maximize getting as much of that goodness into her bloodstream as possible to help reduce inflammation and support healing.
I had her on my pure milk thistle herbal to just to help her body recover from all the drugs that she was on and the anesthetic that she needed with the surgery. And like Glen said, her surgery was two and a half hours, which for a. It's massive. For a 13 kilo dog. Mm. She was probably less than that at the time. And even with humans, you know, I've read that anesthesia, like the drug stays in the system for one paper said a week,
other paper said months and months. So you know, I dunno what the situation is with dogs, but anything you can do to sort of support the liver to process all of that is gonna be beneficial. I had her on Anol Rapid, so because I was feeding her four times a day, I had her on four capsules of Anol Rapids. So one with each meal. It might seem counterintuitive to some people to add a source of fat to a dog
that's got pancreatitis and need to avoid fat and have low fat. But you know, the addition of omega three fats has been shown to be hugely beneficial to dogs with pancreatitis. And even though bug doesn't need to be on like that higher dose long term, some dogs with chronic pancreatitis, they need to be on a low fat diet for years and years and that can put them at a
high risk of deficiencies of the fat soluble vitamins. So vitamin A, D, E and K, which they're all really important for immune function, for skin and coat health and things like that. Mm-hmm . So omega three fats really important for pancreatitis and just again for the body to heal, had her on a digestive enzyme to help ease the workload of her pancreas. And I just used the human one, the eagle veggie digest aid,
which she is really good. I had her on a B vitamin complex because again, all the biochemical processes are upregulated and the B vitamins are critical for so much that happens in the body. She was on a collagen powder twice a day and this might all sound like a lot, but remember this is a little dog that went through a massive trauma and everything I gave her really compliments and there's nothing really overlapping or excessive. So the collagen powder.
And then I also had her on my herbal tonic tissue healing and repair twice a day as well. So that's got things like got cola grape seed extract, rose hips and the maritime pine bark. And they're all awesome for supporting collagen formation, for reducing scarf formation, um, and promoting cellular regeneration. So they're all good. Had her on the big dog probiotic mm-hmm. because she was on a lot of antibiotics, again supporting gut health, really important.
That's sort of everything I gave her supplement wise for the first month. And now that it's sort of, we've hit that four weeks, I'll start to pull back on the, the amount of those and the frequency. So rather than, you know, three or four times a day, she might get them, you know, once or twice a day. But what I have introduced now, now that I've pulled back on those other things is my relaxed terpene blend.
If you're not familiar with that. So terpenes, they're just natural plant compounds and the best known one would probably be curcumin. So terpenes have a wellness effect by acting on the body's own endocannabinoid system. So that's what C B D is acting on. When people use that, they work differently to C B D obviously, but they're still working on that same system in the body.
So the relaxed product, it contains like a formulated blend of three key turbines in combination with hemp seed oil to deliver the desired results. So the three terpenes are mercene, the limine and . So not easy to say, but each of those have been scientifically shown to reduce stress and anxiety, to relieve pain, to act as a mild sedative.
They act as a muscle relaxant, they stabilize mood. And you know, there's actually lots of other actions and benefits that people can read about on my website with those. But the reason I'm starting to give that to ladybug now is we need to just bring her down a notch like ladybug is so high drive and so manic when she gets worked up. So that's sort of what triggers her to eat random household items. Mm-hmm.
like when she gets really overexcited, she will just tear into anything and just swallow anything. Like she actually had a major bowel surgery four years ago when she ate a massive chunk of the sort of that plastic Hessian dog bed material. Yep. So that was another week in the emergency hospital and that was huge as well.
I don't know how she swallows all this stuff, but um, so yeah, I'm hoping that with the relaxed blend and we've already noticed a difference, remember you didn't know I had her on it and you're like, oh bugs you made a comment that she wasn't, I can't remember what you said, NAB. Just that she wasn't as hyperactive and didn't have that level of anxious energy when she kicked in the drive. And the other one that we noticed it on too was pixel that she wasn't picking on
opiate as much. Yeah. Pixel's one of our other female French bulldogs and she's just, which. Is ladybug's daughter. Yeah. And she's definitely her mother's daughter. Yeah. She can be a bit of a bully to Opie our male who's egg. Yeah. Also known as. Anybody who sees my little silly videos of him headbutting the cat that's eggy. So. I've had pixel on a combination of the relaxed terpene blend and my uh, stress and anxiety herbal tonic. And that's been really lovely for taking the edge off her.
And I've had great feedback from clients with that combination of the relax and the stress and anxiety for their dogs as well that Lauren. And Buster. Yeah. So, you know, that's sort of helps to ease that separation anxiety in that instance, which is really good. Mm-hmm. And we probably should say, when I was talking about the vet activate joint care, which is the liquid version of their curcumin products really fascinating. Like Glen and I both noticed something separately.
I was waiting for this to get brought up because it's very interesting. Yeah. So maybe tell what you noticed first. And then you tell what you noticed. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So when Ladybug, after her surgery and after we were told that she'd never walk and there were a lot of complications that were going on there, we did understand one thing that she probably would never regain proper sensation in her back legs.
So because of the trauma that happened during her original operation, we came to accept that she would have, well we learned that she would be able to walk, but we also learned that she probably would never be able to feel and never have
true function in her back legs again. Mm-hmm. However, something interesting happened the other night, which was, I've never seen it before, is that when she dreams of whenever anybody watches their dogs dreaming, they can see that their dogs will get muscle twitches and spasms. Like the ears will flicker the dog generally looks like it's running on, on the spot or twitching. Mm-hmm. But Ladybug does a lot of that.
Like every night her ears will flicker, she'll twitch, she'll make little grumble noises and most people who have got a dog have seen their dog do it before. The one thing that I've noticed about her since last year since she had the surgery for her spine was that her back legs didn't twitch. Probably from about her loins up, she could still move and her skin would twitch and flick her and move around the place. But I would notice that she wouldn't get muscle fire in her back legs.
That is until the other night I heard her making noises and I always turn around to check on her just to make sure she's okay. And I, I was in my office working, I turned around and she was on the bed and for the first time ever I saw muscle flare and twitches in her back legs. Something that I haven't seen before. Like even her toes were curling a little bit and,
but this wasn't happening together. Like I could see each muscle in each leg, like from her knee up to her thigh clenching and twitching. And I hadn't seen that before. And I just happened to mention it to Narelle the next morning. I said, you'll never guess what, I've just seen this phenomenon happen with ladybug that I haven't seen before. And Narelle kind of looked at me with a skeptical look and said, yeah, but you know, like that might be this, that and the other.
But when I explained it to her, she said, oh yeah, that does sound unique. Mm. Like that's different than Yeah. And I said, it is, it's entirely different to anything that I've seen her do before. So then I think it was the day after Narelle took her out onto the oval in our backyard to go and have a little walk around, um, and just have a stretch of her legs and so forth. And then she came back in and told me this story.
Whenever a lady bugs outside to toilet or just to get out and about, I mean she can walk, but before her spinal surgery, whenever she would wee, she's one of those dogs that would like really violently kick the grass in the soil up behind her. And she hasn't obviously been able to do that since her surgery.
So she was walking along and a insect, I dunno if it was a bee, but it was something flying around, hit her in the side of the head and she went on to like, she didn't fall over, but she sort of lent over onto one hip and she actually lifted her other leg partway up towards her head. And I knew she was trying to, she wanted to scratch her head with her back foot. She's never been able to control that back foot to do anything like that since her surgery.
She tried to do that before when she had a bit of an ear thing. Mm. A couple of months ago. She just couldn't get a, a leg up to her head. So she was just shaking her head a lot. But yeah, when you came in and told me that, I thought, wow, that's just incredible for. Her to will, her back leg even halfway towards her head was just phenomenal. Mm. Like, we have not seen anything like that since her surgery.
So when I was thinking about, you know, well what's changed, the only thing that I've really done differently because since her spinal surgery, I mean she was on a lot of supplements, but everything that I've mentioned today, she was on for most of last year except for the vet activate joint care and I've really like upped that dose. Mm-hmm. So she was getting that two to three times a day initially. She's still on it twice a day. I mean, I don't know for sure and no one will ever know for sure.
But that is really the only supplement that's new to Ladybug. And all I can think of is it's doing something in the body. Something's happening. And I mean, as we've suggested before, neither one of us is into the real woo. We're not real woowoo people. So we kind of look at it from the scientific aspect of it. And when you break down things and you go through a analysis of, well, removing everything that it, it possibly couldn't be mm-hmm. , then you're left with what it possibly could be.
And as Noelle said, 'cause we were going through what could have brought this on, why is this suddenly changed? Mm-hmm. Why are we seeing this emergence of a different type of movement in her legs to muscles that are now twitching and even lifting her leg to try and scratch her ear and so forth. Like where did this come from? And that's where Noelle said, well the only thing I've been adding differently to her diet lately is this
liquid. Mm-hmm. Absolutely amazing. Like from my perspective, just were well and truly, probably about a year and a half past her original surgery where she lost the use of her legs and then she's gone in through this miraculous journey. It's been a long journey, but a miraculous one nonetheless into seeing new bodily functions actually arise suddenly as well. Could be that all this stuff in her stomach has come out and there's been, you know, like she, she's, well.
That might have been impinging on some nerve. Right. That was inhibiting her from further progress and now that that's gone, maybe that's helping her. Right. We can't ude any of that. But what we have noticed is that something that wasn't absolutely wasn't happening. So when you know like a true indication of what she was feeling in her back legs is indicated through, it's one thing when you're awake and conscious of it, but it's another thing when you're asleep and unconscious of it. Mm-hmm.
So even unconscious and asleep, we would notice that her back legs weren't fiery and weren't twitching, weren't squeezing. Suddenly that's changed. It's not enormous, but it's enough to notice it. Like you can look at her and see there's change. There's something that's happening that never used to happen before. It's quite miraculous. And it's.
Great because once we sort of hit that 12 month mark post-surgery for a spinal surgery and I started to run out of some of the support supplements that I had on to help her regain those neural connections and things like that along her spine, I let a lot of them drop off because I thought, well it's 12 months, chances are nothing's really gonna change from here on. We just have to accept that this is as good as it gets for ladybug. But yeah, starting to prove me wrong. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, it's been quite amazing. So if you wanna know more about a lot of these supplements that Noelle has been using on Ladybug, you can go onto her website. Mm-hmm. She's making this stuff up not just for dogs but for clients as well. I've been taking her relaxed formula that she's making specifically for me with Astra Gar and licorice root and everything in it really. And the mushrooms.
The mushrooms as well. Like I've got, I think there's about six different mushroom types that she puts in it. Seven different. Mushrooms. Seven. Seven. Okay. Seven's lucky number. That's having a profound effect on me. Like, I mean my mood's been incredibly low since all this lockdown and I noticed that sometimes I'll get up in the morning. I've got some negative thoughts already 'cause I checked the news and that already puts me in a bit of a downward spiral.
So I actually do make a habit of making sure I go out and take these formulas and funnily enough I can feel lifting my spirits from midday onwards. It is actually having a much better effect on me. My diet's been crap. It's been terrible. Well that's the thing with lockdown and people are inside a lot, but you know, their diets are deteriorating, people are drinking more alcohol. Like this is absolutely the time you need to be looking after your immune system. Mm-hmm. With Covid everywhere.
So I mean that's where the mushrooms just shine. Yeah. In terms of immune support. But yeah, people do really, I mean we're sort of going a little bit off track, but people do need to really do the best with their diet because that is the basis of health. Sleep well eat well. Mm. And look after your immune system. I meant to mention with Ladybug, one of the other challenges we've had for the last month with her diet is her go-to treat has always been Zoe Peak. She just is manic for zw peak.
But because z wee peak is so high in fat, it's about 30 to 33% fat, depending on which variety. Good fat still. Oh yeah. Good. Fat. Awesome. Fat, fat. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean it's what dogs need. Mm-hmm. But we had to find a replacement for the Z wee peak. And the great thing is the ball and bone, she couldn't have all of their varieties, but they have a kangaroo mint and turmeric dental stick, which was 1.8% fat. So that was perfect for ladybug. Mm-hmm.
And they have a freeze dried treat, which is kangaroo with spinach and kelp. Now it was a little bit higher. It's, you know, around 9% fat. But you know, when you're only giving little bits here and there, that was still absolutely great for ladybug. And honestly, if you didn't know they were for dogs and you just read the ingredients, for example, the freeze dried kangaroo treats that I'm using, like they're literally just 83% kangaroo, coconut, sardine,
spinach and kelp. That is it. Mm-hmm. Like that is human food. If you didn't know opposite of dogs, you would assume it was a treat for humans. I mean, maybe the sardines might put you off a bit, but, um, but that's how pure they are. And that's, you know, why I am so supportive of Bell and Bone coming on board as a sponsor because they produce products that I am happy for my dogs to eat. Yep. Particularly like I said, following a major surgery and a trauma,
you just want to give the best nutrition you can. Mm-hmm. And I'm really fortunate that, you know, big Dog and Bell and Bone sort of fall into that quite easily. Yep. So, you know, as Glen said, if you wanna learn more about any of my products, jump into my website, natural health and nutrition.com au. Mm-hmm. I'm gonna post a photo of what came out of Ladybug on my Facebook page, natural Health for People and Pets. So absolutely check that out and leave your comments there.
If you've got any questions, you know, just jump onto the Facebook page or you can email me neural at natural health and nutrition.com au. And as Glenn said, with the Herbal Blends, I've got some sort of standard herbal blends that are really popular on my website, but I also do custom herbal blends. So if there's something that you're interested in that's not there, I've had, um, just to give you an example, I've had two people actually ask for epilepsy lens for their dogs.
I've had someone who wanted to cover heart health and joint health in the same product. So I was able to combine that. So just shoot me an email, let me know what your needs are and I'll let you know what I can do. One thing, my wife, there's many things my wife is brilliant at, which is research development, studying, I mean, all those things because she's a true scientist at heart.
So she really gets right into the weeds of finding out all the factual data and then putting it together into things that actually work. One thing she's absolutely terrible at is marketing. She's just terrible at marketing. Like her and I have always got, I'm trying, you know, like cre brows looking at each other when I keep telling her that she needs to market more. Her products are brilliant. I'm terrible at social media.
Yeah. You're not really good at social media if you do believe in her products and you are using them and you wouldn't mind help us out, tell a friend, tell a couple of friends because it is good stuff. Narelle and I are critics of each other in our work and so forth. Not in a bad way, but we're just honest with each other about constructive. Yeah. Constructive about things that are good and bad. And I mean, I do know that she spends a lot of time digging up the fact about what works and
what doesn't. And if it doesn't work, it, it doesn't go into any of the products. Same thing with the sponsors. If the sponsors that we brought on board for this podcast weren't measuring up as far as. Just quality, integrity, transparency, all. Of it. Yep. Yeah. It has to matter because it's people's health and it's very, very important as I found out myself with my own problematic journey through
health throughout the years. Mm. And Noelle's and other people that she's worked with have been, uh, very beneficial in not only my healing, but friends of ours, clients of Noelle's and their dogs as well. And it's even more so now than ever where we are all collectively going through this trauma. You've gotta remember to look after your own health and wellbeing. It's very, very important.
Yeah, absolutely. Yep. So I guess our challenge now going forward with Ladybug, I mean, I don't know how many lives she's got left. So she's had bowel surgery at one year of age. She's had her spinal surgery last year and now she's, she turns five this week. It's her fifth birthday. I can't believe she made it. And she's had her third major surgery in five short years.
Well we actually thought this one, the most recent one was actually gonna finish her off because even when she came outta surgery, it'd been a really traumatic surgery for two and a half hours. Jane did a great job. You know, Jane and the girls down at Hills District Vet Clinic are great. Her and her staff, brilliant people. They're very, very, uh, upfront and clear about what's going on. But you know, even when Ladybug came home, she was just not in a good way.
She was very unhappy she wasn't eating and we were both very distressed about it. But Jane assured us that things would be fine. We just had to keep an eye on her and be very vigilant and, and just make sure we're getting her fluids into her and waiting for her to poo and everything like that. So, and we. Were doing the, you know, the nightly, the checks during the night Yep. And all those worried parent, pet parent things that we do Yep. For our dogs that we love. Mm-hmm.
So our challenge now with Bug going forward is to keeping her calmer. So. That's happening. Yay. For the relax and the stress and anxiety. But yeah, when you've got a high drive dog, we're lucky she's only 13 kilos High drive. It's still a challenge. Mm-hmm. Alright, I think we'll leave it there. So as we've said, if you're looking for Elle's products, you can go to our website, natural health and nutrition.com au. Mm-hmm. Please check out our sponsors 'cause we really appreciate them.
Big Dog Pet Foods, which is Big Dog pet. Foods.com. Yep. And Bell and bone.com au. Yep. So yeah, highly recommend you jump on their websites. Yeah, check 'em out. Support 'em, support the people who support us. Yep. All right, thanks. Thank you everyone. Have a great one. Thanks. Everyone. Bye.